People often tell me they would love a show Poodle.

What many don’t realise is that a show Poodle is not simply a pet that attends dog shows. It is a lifestyle.

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The times mentioned below are based on my experience with Toy Poodles. Grooming and preparation for Miniature and Standard Poodles can take considerably longer.

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A show Poodle is not groomed when it gets dirty. A show Poodle is washed, blow dried, brushed and re-banded every week. Nails are not trimmed when they become too long. They are maintained constantly so they never become long in the first place.

A trip to the beach, the river, the forest or even a rainy walk often means more grooming afterwards. Depending on the coat and how dirty the dog becomes, that may involve anything from re-brushing and re-banding to another full bath and blow dry.

Every week there are shampoos, conditioners, masks, wraps, bands, brushes, dryers and countless grooming supplies. Most exhibitors accumulate an entire cupboard full of products before they discover what works best for their particular dog.

And coat care does not stop with bathing and brushing. A show Poodle requires regular trimming and scissoring to maintain shape and presentation. Faces and feet need clipping. Coats need tidying and balancing. Depending on the coat and your goals, this may mean grooming every week or two.

Owners generally have two options. They can visit a highly skilled groomer regularly, often before every show, which can quickly become expensive. Or they can invest in their own equipment and education.

Professional clippers, blades, scissors, dryers, grooming tables and training courses are a significant investment. Many exhibitors spend thousands of dollars building their equipment collection and hundreds of hours developing the skills required to use them properly.

A typical bath, blow dry and coat preparation session may take anywhere from 1.5 hours to several hours, depending on the dog’s coat, your equipment and your experience. And that is just routine maintenance.

For some people, grooming becomes a hobby in its own right. For others, it feels like taking on a second profession.

You also start thinking differently about everyday life. Where can the dog exercise without burrs, grass seeds, mud or coat damage? Can it play safely with other dogs without losing coat? Will this activity be worth the hours of grooming required afterwards?

You become very aware that damaged coat can take months to regrow. Skin injuries may affect coat quality. Rough play can break coat. A muddy paddock can create hours of extra work.

A show Poodle also requires training and a very specific type of socialisation. The dog must learn to stand calmly, allow strangers to examine its mouth and body, tolerate grooming and travel comfortably. It must learn to accept being handled by judges without showing discomfort or concern.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain it is this.

If your vision of dog showing involves taking a dog out of the paddock, giving it a quick brush and heading to a show, there is good news. There are breeds where that approach can work.

The Poodle is not one of them.

Then there are the shows themselves.

The funny thing is that the few minutes in the ring are often the easiest part.

The night before a show usually involves several hours of bathing, blow drying and coat preparation. Then comes an early start, a drive to the grounds, and more grooming at the show. Brushing, tidying, setting the topknot, bands, hairspray and final touch-ups.

After all that work, the dog may spend only a few minutes in the ring.

Then you pack up, drive home, wash out the hairspray, apply conditioner or a coat mask, dry the coat again and put the dog back into bands, ready for the next week.

The public sees a few minutes in the ring. The exhibitor lives everything that happens before and after those few minutes.

A show Poodle also affects your schedule. Weekends become dog show weekends, and your calendar may be booked months in advance. Birthdays, family gatherings, holidays and social events often need to fit around the show schedule, not the other way around.

Even holidays become more complicated. Most pet owners can leave their dog with a boarding kennel or pet sitter and go away for a week. A show dog in full coat often requires someone who understands coat care, brushing, banding and grooming routines. Finding that person can sometimes be harder than planning the holiday itself.

And there is one more thing that many newcomers do not consider.

None of this guarantees success.

You can spend years learning to groom. You can invest thousands of dollars in equipment, products, training, travel and entries, and dedicate hundreds of hours to preparing your dog. You can do everything right and still walk out of the ring empty-handed.

Success in the show ring depends on many factors. The quality of the dog matters, but so do preparation, presentation, conditioning, handling and how well the dog performs on the day. A dog that wins under one judge may not win under another. A result achieved today may be different tomorrow, or even later the same afternoon.

That is simply the nature of competition.

The ribbons, points and titles are never guaranteed, no matter how much work you put in. The time, effort and expense, however, are guaranteed from the moment you decide to campaign a dog.

Perhaps the most important thing of all is that you have to genuinely enjoy the process.

People often ask me whether I enjoy showing my dogs. The answer is yes. I genuinely do. Some of my favourite memories have been made at dog shows. I love spending weekends with my dogs, watching them develop, meeting friends, learning from other exhibitors and working towards the next goal.

But I am also not going to pretend that I never get tired. Like many exhibitors, I go through periods where I feel completely burnt out. Sometimes it is the endless grooming, sometimes it is the travelling, sometimes it is putting in months of work only to come home without a ribbon.

For me, one of the biggest challenges is campaigning red Poodles in Australia. Whether people agree or disagree, it has often felt like an uphill battle. There have certainly been times when I’ve been completely over it and wanted to throw in the towel and walk away from showing altogether.

But then I take a break, recharge, and sooner or later I find myself looking forward to the next show again. I think that is probably the biggest sign that you truly love the hobby. Even when it becomes exhausting, you still want to come back.

If you are doing it purely for ribbons, titles, breeding rights or the possibility of future litters, sooner or later you will become frustrated.

Dog showing demands thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, enormous effort and endless patience. You may spend years learning, grooming, travelling and competing, and still experience far more losses than wins. That is simply the reality of competition.

The people who stay in the sport are usually not the people who love winning. They are the people who love the dogs, the grooming, the training, the friendships, the challenge and the journey itself.

Because once you remove the enjoyment and leave only the work, it is hard to imagine a more demanding and less rewarding hobby.

A show Poodle is not for everyone, and that is perfectly okay.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a beloved companion, enjoying life together and leaving the ribbons and hairspray to somebody else.